This date in Weekender history: Evanescence, Yoko and Heath

Evanescence performs in Los Angeles on its first national tour in 2003. The tour came to S.A. a month later.

Time to dig out a new batch of Weekender bound volumes for highlights from five, 10 and 15 years ago (man the dust is flying in my half-cubicle this morning; where’s my allergy pills?):

Sept. 5, 2003

Music:

• Powered by the red-hot hit “Bring Me to Life,” Evanescence made its San Antonio debut at Sunken Garden Theater on a bill with Cold, Finger Eleven and Revis. Music writer Jim Beal Jr. talked with singer Amy Lee from a tour stop in Denver. She said of the band’s music, “We were inspired by things going on all around us in the world. We listened to music from all over the world.”

She talked about songwriting partner Ben Moody: “When it came time to developing our music, we didn’t go for anything in particular. Ben and I talked about the music we liked but we didn’t say, ‘Let’s be like this.’ We take what I write and what he writes and it becomes what we write. I want us to be my favorite band. And we are.”

• The Fleshtones, garage-rock heroes who had been flying under the mainstream radar since the ’70s, played Taco Land. “There is not trend that will ever financially benefit the Fleshtones,” said singer Peter Zaremba. “What we’re hearing (the ongoing garage-rock revival) is the natural reaction of people trying to reclaim their music. Anyone can put together a psychedelic garage-rock band if they’re willing to do it.”

• Hey, look! Tony Bennett tickets are going on sale for his show Nov 11 in the Majestic Theatre.

(File Photo)

Heath Ledger starred in ‘The Order,’ which finally opened in 2003 after being delayed almost a year.

Movies:

• Who can forget “Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star”? David Spade starred in this 2 1/2-pepper comedy (according to the E-N’s Larry Ratliff) as the hapless title character who spends time with a real family to make up for his not-so-real childhood. The best part is a photo of Spade in a boxing match getting pummeled by tiny Emmanuel Lewis.

• “The Order,” starring Heath Ledger as a renegade priest taking on the immortal Sin Eater, opened without being screened for critics. Not surprising, since the film practically defined the term “troubled project.” It has been scheduled to open in October 2002, but was delayed after test audiences thought special-effects scenes meant to be terrifying were funny instead.

Also opening: A whole bunch of indies, including “The Secret Lives of Dentists,” “Respiro,” “The Heart of Me” and “Chaos.”

Events:

• Staff writer Hector Saldaña interviewed Yoko Ono for a story on “Come Together,” an exhibit of reproductions of John Lennon’s artwork at Sunset Station. She joked: “I think the first reality show was John & Yoko’s bed-in. It was such a fishbowl existence that we felt we should use if for the betterment of the world or whatever.”

She said the exhibit helped her cope with his loss: “If I were dwelling in the past, I couldn’t work. But it’s a nice feeling to still work on John’s stuff because it’s like being close to him. Also, I feel the responsibility to his work as an artist-friend to him, and as a partner.”

• The controversial drama “How I Learned to Drive” opened in the Cellar Theater at San Pedro Playhouse. It dealt with an incestuous relationship involving an uncle who is not portrayed as a monster. Director Pat Wells said she wanted her audiences “to be uncomfortable from the moment they come in and see the set.” Even more distubring, Wells said she had been abused as a child by a great-uncle.

(Express-News File Photo)

Beastie Boy MCA performs in the Alamodome in 1998.

Sept. 4, 1998

Music:

• The Beastie Boys are in the house! Actually, they were in the Alamodome in support of their “Hello Nasty” CD. We had a great cover photo of the Boys wearing black, red and yellow rain slickers that looked like trashbags (or maybe vice-versa). They weren’t doing interviews, but I poked around and put together a preview that included the following:

“Much of the time, it’ll be the three MCs and one DJ format (the DJ being Mix Master Mike. But they’ll also pick up their instruments for a strange show-within-a-show that includes thrash and ersatz Latin-jazz instrumentals.”

However, the opening act, punk-rock heroes Rancid, would talk to us. “The bottom line is, you never want to make the same record twice,” bassist Matt Freeman said (they were touring behind the made-in-Jamaica CD “Life Won’t Wait”). “This is the first time where we didn’t walk into the studio and walk out a week later with a record.”

• Geez, too bad there’s hardly any music this week. Janet Jackson followed the Beastie Boys into the dome a few days later on her Velvet Rope tour. The opening act was some teen-age hip-hop heartthrob named Usher.

• Robert Earl Keen’s Labor Day Texas Uprising featured Cowboy Mouth, Jason & the Scorchers, Charlie Robison, Toni Price and Monte Montgomery. Jim Beal Jr. interviewed Scorchers’ guitarist Warner Hodges, who talked about the dearth of county/rock bands when they started out in the ’80s. “In the South, it was scary,” he said. “We started out playing a lot of punk clubs because that was the only place we could play. A lot of our fan base now are punk rockers who go into country through us. Back then, it wasn’t cool to like the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, George Jones and Hank Williams. Heck you weren’t even allowed to like both kinds of music, much less combine them.”

• You want some more music? We also had Anthrax at the White Rabbit, the Big ’80s Block Party (Howard Jones, Tone-Loc, Rick Springfield, Gene Loves Jezebel and the Outfield) in Sunken Garden and the Rippingtons in the Hyatt River Walk.

Movies:

• “Your Friends & Neighbors” was the latest savage look at relationships from Neil LaBute, who gave us the controversial “In the Company of Men.” It’s the only new film opening this weekend that was screened for critics. The others included Jean-Claude Van Damme’s “Knock Off” and the Australian comedy “Welcome to Woop Woop” starring Jonathan Schaech and Noah Taylor.

Events:

• The International Cat Association show in the Convention Center featured KTSA’s Elizabeth Ruiz as a celebrity judge. “I like cats but I own a dog,” she told Hector Saldaña. “I don’t know how the cats are going to react if they sniff a dog on me.”

• Hector also interviewed George Blackburn, president of the Texas Association of Magicians, who were having magic shows for the public as part of their convention. “Magicians always want to know what’s new to fool each other and to entertain their audience,” he said.

Sept. 3, 1993

Music:

• George Strait and Brooks & Dunn headlined the first big country blowout in the Alamodome. The lineup also included McBride & the Ride, Lee Roy Parnell, Suzy Bogguss, Delbert McClinton, Bobbie Cryner, Sisters Morales and Aaron Barker. The coverage features an interview with Ronnie Dunn, who talked about the pressure (or lack of it) in making “Hard Working Man,” the followup to their amazingly successful debut, “Brand New Man.”

“You hear a lot of press feedback, ‘what about the sophomore jinx, do you feel the pressure?’ And you do, but it’s no different from any project you take on,” he said.

• Ray Charles rolled into town to headline Las Casas Foundation’s benefit and to support his “My World” album. “The song has to fit me and my style,” he said of the process of choosing material for the record. “It took us six months to find the material and the recording took another four months.”

Events:

• Labor Day weekend featured lots of music-driven events. The Doobie Brothers played SeaWorld; smooth-jazz ace Najee played Sunken Garden; Grupo Rodeo was out front at the usual Market Square bash.

Movies:

• Uh-ho. RJ’s getting goofy with the headlines again. Brad Pitt, of all people, starred as a psychopathic klller in the brutal “Kalifornia,” which also featured Juliette Lewis and David Duchovny. The headline:

Dial ‘K’ for ‘Killer’

‘Kalifornia’ a klever, kold-blooded knockout

(Sorry)

• “Manhattan Murder Mystery” was described as a throwback to Woody Allen’s early comedies. He and Diane Keaton star as a couple of amateur sleuths who suspect a neighbor of murder and try to prove it, at some risk to their safety.

• Also opening were a couple of no-shows — “Calendar Girls” and the Christopher Lambert sci-fi fantasy “Fortress.”